


Happy Mother's Day, Shirley!

by Skypan



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Everyone is OOC cause the author sucks at writing, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, I dunno its whenever Andre took the kids, Pierce doesn't exist because I say so, Set during season 4 I guess?, This is the first Gen fic I've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skypan/pseuds/Skypan
Summary: Shirley is pretty sure this will be the worst Mother's Day ever... Until a certain study group shows up on her doorstep.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 54





	Happy Mother's Day, Shirley!

Shirley stares up at her ceiling, already dreading the day.

It’s Mother’s Day, and it’s a Saturday. She has the whole day free… And her kids won’t be there with her. For the first time in a decade, she won’t have any cards, any flowers, any poorly attempted meals made for her. Because Andre had taken the kids.

She had been meaning to call him for the last week to ask to see her babies, but… What if he said no? What if he said they were never coming back? She didn’t think she could survive that…

She fully planned to mope around all day and let herself feel bad, but first she really needed some breakfast.

With a sigh she heaves herself out of bed and slides on a robe over her nightgown.

As she descended the stairs she considered what to do with herself. Maybe she would shop online all day to make herself feel better, or just go straight back to bed.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the doorbell ringing. “Just a moment!” She called out, stopping by a mirror in the hall to make sure she looks presentable. She had no idea who it could be, but she figured it must be a delivery person, or perhaps one of the neighborhood kids was going door to door selling something.

She padded her way over and swung the door open to see-

“Hi Shirley!” Annie said with a big smile. “Happy Mother’s Day, is it okay if I come in?”

“Oh, well sure dear!” Shirley said, stepping aside.

“Thanks!” Annie said, going right by her and into the kitchen.

“An-nie, what are you doing?” Shirley called out, closing the door and following her into the kitchen.

“Making pancakes,” Annie replied cheerfully as she got out ingredients.

“Making pancakes?” Shirley asked, confused. Just then, the doorbell rang again.

“I’ll be right there!” Shirley called, hurrying to the front door and pulling it open again.

“Happy Mother’s Day!” Abed and Troy said in unison. Troy was carrying what looked like a bundle of fabric under one arm and some sort of paper under the other.

“Can we come in?” Troy asked with an excited grin. 

With a nod Shirley stepped aside. “Sure…” She was a little surprised as the boys moved towards her living room. “Oh, Annie is in the kitchen!”

“We know,” Abed said back as they disappeared into the living room. Shaking her head in bemusement, she closed the door, then went back to the kitchen.

“An-nie, do we have a project due that I forgot about?” Shirley asked.

“I don’t think so,” Annie replied, mixing batter.

“Do you need some help?” Shirley asked, already walking over to get out the pans.

“Hey, no helping! Its Mother’s Day, you’re supposed to be relaxing!” Annie said with a laugh. The doorbell rang again. “If you want to help, do you mind getting that?”

“Of course,” Shirley replied, hurrying to the door. She had a feeling she knew who she would find on the other side this time.

“Hey Shirley, happy Mom’s Day!” Britta said. “Mind if I come in?”

“Thank you Brit-ta,” Shirley said, stepping aside to let her in.

“I didn’t know whether you liked red or white better, so I brought both!” Britta said, holding up a bottle of wine in each hand.

“Oh, well thank you,” Shirley said.

“No problem, I’m gonna get some ice for these,” Britta said, walking towards the kitchen.

“There’s ice in the freezer, and I have a champagne bucket in the cabinet by the stove!” Shirley called before turning to close her door.

She jumped in surprise as she saw Jeff standing there, a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“Hi honey,” he said jokingly. “Sorry I’m late, are the kids already here?”

“Um, yes, but…” She started to say as he brushed past her into the house.

“You probably want to close that before we get a draft,” Jeff said, nodding at the still open door.

She closed it quickly, then turned to survey him again. Instead of his normal v-necks and button ups, he was wearing a sweater vest over a long sleeved shirt and a bow tie.

“And of course these are for you,” he said, holding out the flowers.

“Thank you, Jeff, they’re lovely,” She said, taking them gingerly. “Jeff… What is this?”

He smiled at her. “This is Mother’s Day. Of course I’m not really one of your kids, since we’re the same age, but we’re basically coparents, aren’t we?”

“I suppose so,” Shirley chuckled. “I’m going to go find a vase for these.”

As she walked into the kitchen she was hit with the lovely smell of cooking pancakes.

“That smells nice,” she said to Annie with a smile. “This might be the first time since I was a child that someone else made me pancakes.”

“Aw, thanks Shirley,” Annie smiled back.

“Here, let me get those in some water,” Britta said, reaching out to take the flowers from Shirley.

“Yeah, why don’t you go sit down Shirley? The boys are probably almost done with the living room,” Annie said.

“Done with the living room?”

“Go and see,” Britta said as she rummaged around, looking for a vase.

Shirley made her way into the living room, feeling strangely nervous to see whatever they had done. She loved the boys, but they _were_ rather peculiar.

She stopped short in the door way, unable to stop a gasp of delight at what she saw.

There was a banner hung above her windows that said “Happy Mother’s Day!” It was clearly made with Annie’s best quality paint, and had glitter _and_ puffy paint flowers decorating the corners.

Someone had drawn back the curtains to let the morning light in, and there was a lovely purple table cloth over her coffee table. The couch had been moved closer to the television, and there were piles of pillows and blankets making a u-shape around the coffee table.

“Do you like it?” Troy asked, grinning proudly.

“Oh boys,” She said, placing a hand over her heart as she moved in to sit on the couch. “It’s just lovely.”

Britta came in a moment later to place the vase of flowers in the middle of the table. “Annie needs help carrying!” She said before walking out again.

“Not you Shirley,” Jeff said before she could even stand up. “We’ve got this, you relax and pick what you want to watch first.”

Abed plopped down next to her on the couch as Troy and Jeff left to help the girls. He reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of DVDS.

“We have a few Hallmark options, Hellraiser, God’s Not Dead, The Princess Bride, The Game Plan, and The Scorpion King,” Abed said quickly. “I picked the last two because The Rock is in both of them and spends at least some time shirtless.”

“Oh!” Shirley said, blushing a little. “That’s nice, Abed. You didn’t have to pick out movies just for me. We can watch whatever the group wants.”

“Its Mother’s Day, that means you get to choose,” Abed stated. 

“Well, I suppose we could start with The Game Plan, if everyone else is okay with it.”

“The Game Plan it is,” he said, getting up and going over to the TV.

At that moment, everyone else came back in, laden with plates and wine and pancakes.

As they all settled down, someone making a plate for Shirley and pouring her wine for her, she couldn’t help but tear up just a bit at being so pampered.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but… What are you all doing here?” She asked, looking around at all of her friends – her sweet, thoughtful, lovely friends.

“We’re making sure you have the Mother’s Day you deserve,” Jeff said.

“Yeah, if we’re being honest, you mom us a lot, on top of raising your kids… You deserve way more than just a dinky little celebration,” Annie added.

“This isn’t a ‘dinky little celebration’,” Shirley said with a sniff. Britta passed her the tissues.

“But what about all of your mother’s? Shouldn’t you be with them?” She asked as she dried her eyes.

“I would rather die than see my family,” Jeff said.

“Jehovah’s witness, we don’t celebrate Mother’s Day,” Troy said. “Although obviously I’m making an exception for you.”

“My parents suck,” Britta stated eloquently before taking a large sip from her glass of wine.

“My parents don’t really talk to me after I went to rehab…” Annie mumbled, twiddling her fingers.

“My mom left when I was young, I have no idea where she is,” Abed said, leaving the room in awkward silence.

“Well… Thank you all, for being here with me, anyway. You’ve made what I thought would be a terrible day into something really special.”

“We’re always here for you, Shirley,” Jeff said with a smile.

“Enough dilly-dallying, let’s dig in!” Annie said.

As Abed hit play on the movie and everyone settled with their food, Shirley couldn’t help but look around at her friends. No… Her family. She may not be blood related to any of them, but she couldn’t think of them as anything less.

And she knew they really would always be there for her. No matter how many mistakes she made, she had a family to stand with her.

Maybe tomorrow she would call Andre and ask to see the kids. With her family by her side, she felt like she could handle anything.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually feel pretty good about this one, so if you know me IRL, feel free to talk to me about this one.


End file.
